KARACHI, May 30: Experts on chest disease at a seminar, while discussing the pattern of tobacco consumption, observed that children and teenagers, among others, were now getting prone to smoke-related disorders.
A seminar was held in connection with the World No Tobacco Day — jointly organized by the Department of Chest Medicine, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, and Pakistan Chest Society (Sindh) — the other day.
A senior consultant and chest physician at the Aga Khan University, Prof Javaid Khan, said 40 per cent men and 8 per cent women smoke on a regular basis in the country. If we include the use of tobacco in the form of gutka, paan and naswar then the total number of people using tobacco in the country could go probably the highest in the world, he added.
He referred to the WHO prediction that the 500 million alive today would eventually be killed by tobacco use, and mentioned that more than half of such deaths would be of those who were now children and teenagers. He said that tobacco advertising had been shown to have strong influence on children and teenagers.
The head of Department of Chest Medicine, KV SITE Hospital, Dr Zafaryab Hussain, said that it was now known that smokers had a higher risk of cardio-vascular, respiratory, and malignant disorders. “It is now established that persons who are exposed to secondary smoke (passive smoking) have a higher incidence of upper and lower respiratory tract infections,” he added, and cited that children of the parents who smoked had higher incidence of asthma, sudden infant death bronchitis, and pneumonia.
The general secretary of the Pakistan Chest Society (Sindh), Dr Mohammad Hussain, said that multiple studies had proved that active smoking was an independent factor for development of post-operative pulmonary complications, which was due to decreased mucous clearance and abnormal small airway function. Optimal time for smoking cessation is 6-8 weeks prior to elective surgery, which can decrease incidence of post-operative complications, he informed.
In his report of study — “Tharparkar and Tobacco Smoking” — Dr Rano Mal observed that 95 per cent households had one or more smokers. Twenty per cent of the people were regular smokers and 93 per cent took this habit in their teens and twenties, under the influence of friends and family members who were also smokers, he added.
Dr Shahina Qayyum of the Department of Chest Medicine, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said that there were more than one billion smokers in the world, which included more than 200 million females. More than 3 million women died due to smoking-related disorders, she added.
The president of the Chest Society, Dr Nadeem Rizvi, and Dr Mashoor Alam of the Department of Internal Medicine, JPMC, also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Mashoor said that the amount saved through control of smoking and tobacco could be spent to treat smoking-related disorders.